Winter storms challenge electric co-op systems

North Carolina’s electric cooperatives worked to restore power to approximately 35,000 member accounts that experienced outages as a result of two snow and ice storms the last two weeks of February. Outages occurred in the Sandhills region, as well as parts of Beaufort, Cumberland, Orange, Pender and Wake counties. Sleet and freezing rain coated, and eventually brought down, tree limbs and power lines.

Crews from less-impacted cooperatives traveled to assist sister co-ops as part of a mutual-aid agreement to help in times of emergency, which sped up the restoration process.

Several co-ops used social media to communicate in real time as outages were restored. “Facebook gives us the tool to communicate outage updates and messages, videos and photos to our members in real time,” said Gay Johnson, director of corporate communications at Four County EMC. “Sharing videos and photos gives a whole new meaning to outage restoration in the eyes of many of our members.”